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My life, for what it's worth, part 2

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Hard to believe we're halfway through February already. Tax season is off to a frantic start, we're much busier than normal for mid-February. Which is both good and bad. Yesterday, for instance, my partner who doesn't like spending money looked at the schedule for today. I was busy with appointments all day, but she wasn't, so she told the receptionist not to bother coming in. I would not have done that, but I don't care. I saw clients all day, and the phone rang and rang and rang. A dozen clients dropped off paperwork. And tonight my partner was bitching that she hadn't gotten anything done all day. Hmmm. I gently suggested that we not tell the receptionist not to come anymore.

Yesterday we threw a big party for my mother's 85th birthday. It was the usual annoyance. I asked her what kind of party she wanted. She obviously knew, but she wasn't going to tell me. I thought it would be nice to have it at a restaurant, like she'd done for …

I used to do these every year, at the old place. I think I'll do it again this year.

1. What did you do in 2017 that you've never done before?
Bury my dad.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Sort of. I resolved to make time for reading every day. I started out doing really well, and then dad got sick and died and I kind of got off track. I've still read way more this year than I have in awhile, but I'd like to try to do even more. And I think I want to figure out a way to limit my time on social media. It's interesting and fun, but those are hours of my life I'm never getting back, and I bet I could find a better way to use them.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
My dad. The man I considered to be my second dad. The cat, and the dog.
5. What countries did you visit?
I did not leave the US this year. I did have a lovely week on Maui, which is almost as good …

I'm gonna say it. 2017 has been the worst year ever. Even not counting the president, which has been pretty awful all by itself. I lost my dad. I lost the man I considered to be a second father. I've been dealing with all the drama of Emily's ups and downs, and my mom falling. We lost the cat, which sent Joe into a tailspin. And now the dog is sick.

Last Wednesday I went to rub the dog's head and realized there were big golf ball-sized lumps under his chin. By the next day his front leg and his face had swollen up. Joe took him to the vet, who promised to call with test results the next day. Finally today I managed to get the news that it's lymphoma.

I wanted to take him tonight to put him down. He's not actively suffering but he's obviously uncomfortable and he's not enjoying life anymore. Joe doesn't want to do it yet. We need to have a talk about this (and I will do it tomorrow regardless, I don't want any animals suffering on m…

2017 has really sucked. First my dad got sick and died. Then my mom fell. Joe has had various health issues and has felt bad for much of the year.

This week, his cat got into some rice. I have no idea why Emily had rice in her room, or how the cat got in there, the door is always closed. But she did, and she did, and she ate a bunch of it. I came home to piles of barfed up rice all over the house. I wasn't too concerned, that cat has gotten real aggressive about eating things lately. She drags kleenex out of the garbage and eats it (and throws it up) Ugh.

But she seemed kind of droopy. When Joe got home he was all freaked out about his precious. He didn't eat dinner and hovered over her all evening. After I went to bed, he decided to take her to the emergency vet. They did some xrays and said she had colon cancer. Emily was there and called her brothers. They all came over to say goodbye. I was a bad person and stayed in bed. I loved the cat, but I had to get…

I have lived in Seattle off and on for most of my life, and every single November comes as a huge and horrible shock to me. October is usually fairly sunny, and then it's like someone flipped off a light switch and turned on a cold shower. It's dark when I wake up and dark when I come home, and today it was blowing so hard the windows in my office were rattling. And it rained and rained and rained. Sigh. August is so beautiful here. Why can't all the months be like August?

We didn't lose power tonight, but my mom did. In a shining example of why I keep him around, Joe went and picked up some hot soup and took it over to her, then stayed to chat and fix a couple little things. He hates chatting. Such a good person. This is why I don't kill him about dirty socks dropped in the entry every day.

I ordered an Echo Dot this week and we are having fun asking it questions. Tonight Emily asked a question, and it didn't know the answer. She told it it was ign…

It's hard to believe how much has happened since I wrote that last post. On September 23, my mom finished her dinner, stood up to put her dishes in the sink and discovered that her foot had fallen asleep when she put weight on it. She went down hard, whacked the fireplace with her head and broke her hip in four places.

I have been on her case since dad got sick to wear one of those necklaces that can summon help. I think she secretly thought that, even though she knew people who had fallen and couldn't get up, that would never happen to her. But she says she could not move. Because her daughter did not listen when she said she didn't need a texting cell phone and got her one anyway, it happened to be right there where she could reach it. My brother happened to be at a poker tournament 30 seconds away. She was in an ambulance on her way to the hospital within ten minutes.

Thank goodness for that phone. It is certain she would have laid there all night, and possibly…

Life goes on, so fast it's hard to realize we're halfway through September. We have had such a pretty end of summer. There was a ton of smoke here earlier, but it's been mostly gone for a week now. I don't appreciate clean air enough.

Emily went in to talk to the counselors at the community college and learned she only needs two more classes to get her AA degree, which is what Western told her she should do before applying again. This is wonderful news. She's been catastrophizing that it would take another year. So she'll finish that up this quarter, take chemistry in the winter to get that last bad grade off her transcript and apply for next fall at Western. I really hope they take her this time, we don't really have any alternate plans.

She has decided to be a vegetarian again. She does this fairly often, and it lasts a few weeks. This time she's working so has more money to fritter away on it. She's filled the fridge with meatless meatb…